The Overture
by Creedog VanDrey
Summary: They remembered the night it happened.  This is the story of how fourteen people came to be, from the very beginning.
1. 1A: The Composition, or It's Like Magic

The Overture: Track 1A  
by Creedog VanDrey

Category: _Glee_  
Genre: Family  
Rating: T  
Language: English  
Summary: They remembered the night it happened. Music was playing and they were in love.

A/N: This is something I've been working on for a while. It started as a Santana character study. Then it morphed into a Brittany character study, too. Then I realized that the whole thing was a mess based on a nugget of a good idea, so I started from scratch with just that nugget. Then I realized the scope of what I was writing was too large for one sitting, so I broke it into five. Those five were also too large, so I split the entire project into Side A and Side B. And frankly, if I survive through Side B, there's gonna be a Side C, which kind of defeats the whole metaphor, but it is what it is.

* * *

Track 1, Side A: The Composition  
or "It's Like Magic"

Christopher and Carole remembered the night it happened.

The couple was enjoying a rare night together. Christopher was on leave from the Army and though most of his compatriots spent their time wooing their ladies (or women they'd like to make their ladies) with fancy meals and a night on the town, Christopher and Carole were more than content to watch television at home.

They watched _The Simpsons_, a guilty pleasure of theirs, then the news, switching the channel when news of the Iraqi disarmament came on, but watched the weather intently, especially news of the growing tropical storm off the coast of Africa, which was making its way toward the Caribbean.

Finding the news too depressing, they wandered down to the basement. They started of a game of Life, but gave up after ten minutes, joined forces by putting their blue and pink figurines in the green car that they both liked, and loaded up with more children (which they named, all beginning with the letter C) and "borrowed" a lot of money (which they discussed buying various things with, like a drum set and classy patio furniture).

As "November Rain" played on the radio, they played a game of pinball on the machine that was a wedding gift from Christopher's father. Carole was not very good at it, so Christopher was only too happy to wrap his arms around her and get her score over a million points. What happened next couldn't wait for them to move up to the bedroom, but it did offer the opportunity for Christopher to make a very lame "scoring" pun, but Carole _loved_ bad puns, so they cuddled on the basement couch afterwards, waking up at four in the morning and moving back to bed.

: : :

Leroy and Hiram remembered the night it happened. It was written in pen on the calendar, inconspicuously as "Doctor's appointment – 5:30 PM."

Leroy was an assistant professor of choral music at Ohio State University and put an ad in the school newspaper. One Shelby Corcoran replied. Leroy hadn't met her, but from his colleagues heard good things about her, all of which turned out to be true. She was beautiful and had a voice that brought Leroy and Hiram to tears. She had dreams of the bright lights of Broadway, but no way to get there.

That's how Shelby found herself waiting in the sterile doctor's office, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, embarrassed despite knowing the two men with her had no interest in anything she had to show. It was a blur as the doctor came in, put her legs in a thoroughly uncomfortable pose, and inserted a thoroughly long medical device in a thoroughly private area of her body with a thoroughly clinical demeanor.

Leroy and Hiram tried to make her more comfortable by singing "The Music of the Night", which surprisingly did help.

: : :

Russel and Judy remember the night it happened.

It was a Sunday evening, and Judy had prepared a lovely Sunday dinner of ham, rolls, and four different kinds of vegetables, the latter course which did not endear their 7-year-old daughter Kirsten to the meal. Russel, as always, finished off his meal with a glass of brandy. Judy did not.

Russel was in a good mood. The family had attended church that day. He'd worn in his favorite cream-colored sports jacket, freshly dry-cleaned and starched. The sermon was fantastic: passionate, full of hellfire and knowing thy neighbor and doing to the least of these. It was followed by a church luncheon and an afternoon at the soup kitchen. Russel loved it when the Sabbath was filled with God's work. While Judy was washing the dishes, he put on _The Pretenders_ album and tapped his foot to "My City Was Gone."

Judy was also in a good mood. Her summer garden was in full bloom. Kirsten was actually excited to be starting school the next month. And, most importantly, Russel was in a good mood. In fact, as she finished brushing her teeth in preparation for bed, he sidled up behind her and slid his arms around her midsection. Perfectly coy, she giggled, "Russel, it's Sunday."

"I don't care. I have the most perfect wife in the world." He scooped her up and set her in bed.

Apprehensively, Judy asked, "Russel, do you maybe want to try something a little different tonight?" Russel furrowed his brow. Judy quickly reached her hand around her husband's neck and whispered in his ear. "Forget I said anyway."

Russel lay on top of her, kissing her deeply. Judy pulled back again. "Sweetie, tell me you love me."

"I love you," he stated passively, kissing her again.

"Russel," she pressed, pulling away. "You still find me attractive, don't you?"

Russel pulled back. After a calming breath, he looked deeply into his wife's eyes and with intense sincerity, he stated, "Judy, darling, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. You are the mother of my daughter and all my future children. You are a godly woman. And you are my _wife_. You have no equal in my eyes."

That was more than good enough for Judy, so she pulled her husband back on top of her.

: : :

Gabe and Abigail remember the night it happened. Sort of.

It was just after two o'clock in the morning when Gabe finally stumbled in the door. Like every Friday night, he'd gone out drinking with his buddies from work, leaving his fiancée wondering if he'd turn up before dawn.

He found his wife-to-be sitting at the kitchen table, a mostly empty bottle of wine in front of her. The moment he came into view, she charged him, but with both of them drunk, he had the advantage. "There's perfume on your clothes, you bastard! I can smell it."

"Believe it or not, Foxy Lady, women do frequent bars."

It didn't occur to Abigail to question how the perfume got close enough transfer onto Gabe, so she backed down. "I worry about you," she muttered.

"Hey, you don't need to do that. I'm a big boy. C'mon," he said, swooping low and tossing Abigail over his shoulder, "Rick is throwing this killer party at his place."

Twenty minutes later, Abigail found herself in her underwear in a neighbor's hot tub, dry-humping her fiancé while "Walk This Way" began playing. It wasn't exactly a romantic song, but Abigail _loved_ Aerosmith. Gabe began to sing in her ear and it was all Abigail needed to hear.

: : :

Jack and Hazel remember the night it happened.

It was a cold winter night in Cincinnati. The couple had attended a work party that night where Hazel drank a little too much. Insurance adjusters were apparently too dull for her liking. Jack had also drunk a lot, but he hid it better than his wife. Being an insurance agent was fairly dull, too.

Jack retreated to his study the moment he walked in the door, just like every night in their eight years of marriage. He'd listen to music and stare at the college diploma on his wall. Hazel usually just let him go.

Hazel joined him in the study that night. He was humming along to the music.

"Darling?" he greeted her.

Hazel loved it when he called her "darling." She loved it when he hummed to music. She loved how he loosened his bow-tie, but left it hanging on his neck. She loved the half-vacant, half-smoldering stare he gave her after he'd been drinking. She loved how on-edge he would get when she invaded his sanctuary. Usually, Jack was nothing if not a predictable man. Except when she caught him under the right circumstances.

"I like this song," she commented.

"I _love_ this song."

While Tony Bennett sang about how "The Best is Yet to Come," Jack and Hazel danced while singing along, mixing up the verses.

The rest of the night was kind of a haze, but the rest of the week was one of the best of their marriage.

: : :

Daniel and Rosalina remembered the night it happened.

The young couple was living in Miami, Florida, at the time. The streets were alive that night. To be fair, the streets of Miami were _always_ buzzing. But it was special that night. Carlos Santana was in town on tour, and they had gone to the show, after a healthy meal of authentic Cuban food and tequila. It was like there was something in the air, some sort of electricity. That electricity was actually the barometric pressure dropping rapidly due to an oncoming storm caused by the rapidly approaching Hurricane Andrew.

Daniel and Rosa had fought that night. It wasn't over anything big. Sometime it's just the way they talked, being the fiery Latinos they prided themselves to be. They argued over whether "Oye Como Va" was better than "Evil Ways." They argued about whether their next big investment was a washing machine or a couch. They argued about the true nature of purgatory. They argued whether rice or potatoes went better with empanadas.

They made love that night, passionately if not violently, while Santana's "Black Magic Woman" played in the background, over the sound of the thunderstorm neither of them heard.

: : :

Peter and Margo remembered the night it happened.

The couple was living in Lima, Ohio, with Gusta, Margo's mother, who they'd brought over from the Netherlands and only spoke Dutch.

It was not a particularly special night. It was spring, and spring was Margo's favorite time of the year, and she just _loved_ spring in Lima.

It was their four-month anniversary. It wasn't a big date, but the found no reason not to spend the date with an inexpensive dinner at a quaint, open-air restaurant and watching a sunset at the park.

They made love that night, sweetly and serenely, while Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" played in the background.

* * *

A/N: Somehow the idea of Santana being conceived in the middle of Hurricane Andrew just makes her make sense to me.


	2. 2A: The Exposition, or Cravings

The Overture: Track 2A  
by Creedog VanDrey

Category: _Glee_  
Genre: Family  
Rating: T  
Language: English  
Summary: For nine months, she had the most bizarre cravings.

A/N: So, I'm juggling this, "Feast of Fools", and "Vitamin S." Their Chapter 2's haven't come together, yet, but this one finally did.

* * *

Track 2, Side A: The Exposition  
or "Cravings"

Jack's favorite restaurant was Olive Garden. He could eat spaghetti and meatballs every day and be happy. Before she was pregnant, Hazel thought this quirk was bizarre. After, she considered her husband a genius. It kind of made sense to her that a man who wore so many bow ties would love pasta, too.

Three times a week: Monday, Thursday, Saturday, like clockwork, they'd go in. Yes, most of the time it was their usual dish, but they of course tried new things. By the sixth month, they tried everything on the menu.

Hazel really, _really_ wished she could have wine with her meal, but after a while Italian sodas seemed to cure those urges.

Until that fateful night when they'd run out of blackberry syrup and Hazel almost got them banned from the restaurant. Had the manager, who'd become closer to the couple than Jack's older brother, not stepped in, Hazel might have become a serial killer.

: : :

Shelby celebrated the successful conception with her impregnators.

Technically, Hiram and Leroy couldn't pay Shelby for her surrogacy. But they could pay for everything else. Shelby didn't have to spend a dime for the next nine months, saving all the money she'd made giving voice lessons and singing small-venue gigs around Ohio.

Hiram and Leroy regaled her with stories of New York, which they'd visited four times in their life together, including their honeymoon.

Leroy and Hiram would have Shelby over for dinner at least once a week, promising to prepare whatever she wanted. The husbands became expert at cooking French cuisine because Shelby would all but demand it every Tuesday night.

For the first trimester, the fetus was on a strict Broadway music diet. By the second trimester, they'd jointly agreed to expand the fetus's expanding musical tastes. Leroy added some classical. Hiram provided some 1940's big band. It was up to Shelby to introduce some classy contemporary hits.

: : :

Carole was alone when she saw the two little lines confirming her hopes and fears. Christopher had told her that in that position, it would have been nearly impossible for her to get pregnant. With no other options, she wrote a letter to him. He wrote back on tear-spotted paper, expressing his profound joy with simple words.

Carole didn't crave anything in particular during pregnancy; she craved _everything_. And a lot of it.

When all the employees at Costco knew her name, she got membership at Sam's Club so that she could start alternating her grocery trips between the two stores. At times, it felt like she just wanted eating for three if not four. She was once asked not to return to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Her girlfriends started taking her to steakhouses and other restaurants that offered free meals in exchange for consuming large portions. Carole dominated each and every one of them.

At seven months, strangers kept asking if she were due soon. At nine months, people assumed she was having twins.

: : :

Rosalina found out she was pregnant three weeks after fleeing Miami due to Hurricane Andrew. She and Daniel, and their three-year-old son Rodrigo moved to Texas with her sister's family.

As her condition progressed, everyone declared she was going to have a boy. Rosa agreed; it felt exactly like when she was pregnant with Rodrigo. All the old wives' tales confirmed it. Even the _curandera_ confirmed it.

While pregnant, she craved spicy foods. She wolfed down her sister Pilar's chicken tamales and the _carnitas del diablo_ from the local Colombian restaurant. She made friends with some Andrew-displaced Louisianans and attended their crawfish bakes. She became a regular at the local Thai and Indian restaurants, shamelessly asking for the hottest dishes and sending them back if the cooks tried to give her the milder versions of the dishes, the ones they reserved for white people.

Yes, she broke out into sweats. And, yes, she could feel the burning on her lips. It didn't matter. She could not get enough spice.

: : :

The day after their four-month anniversary, Peter and Margo were leafing through a nature photography book that they kept on their coffee table in the den.

"I'm pregnant," Margo admitted out of nowhere, with little excitement, "It's a girl."

Peter took his wife's face in his hands and kissed her and telling her he loved her. Gusta walked in next, took one look at her daughter and announced to her son-in-law, in Dutch, "My daughter is pregnant. It's a girl." Peter just nodded.

Margo, Peter, and Gusta all gained forty pounds during Margo's pregnancy. Margo craved sweets and had never loved being Dutch more. Gusta kept their house well-stocked with the chocolates and candy. She cooked _Appeltaarts_ three pies at a time, two for Margo and one for her and Peter to share over the next few days. Margo spent most of her time whipping up cupcakes, pudding, and taffy.

Dr. Jones, her dentist, about had conniptions the next time he examined her teeth.

Her friends bought her all of the Disney animated films. They were obviously meant for the baby, but Margo watched them constantly, singing the songs and dancing on the couch, even when she was too big to pull herself off the cushions.

: : :

Gabe was only so happy to stop going to temple.

Abigail stopped dragging him there during her pregnancy. The guilt was too much. The baby in her belly had Gentile tastes. He wanted pork. All the time. And cheeseburgers. And crab cakes.

One week during the fifth month, Abigail ate three bowls of rabbit stew a day. After that, she couldn't come within ten feet of the stuff without getting nauseated.

She once craved lime Jell-O, but after one bite of it, she just told the fetus it could suffer.

Apparently the fetus had a really ironic sense of humor, because during the eighth month, Abigail craved a strict kosher diet. Gabe started coming home late those nights.

: : :

Judy first noticed the problem when she realized she'd eaten all twenty-four of the vanilla-frosted white cupcakes she'd baked for Kirsten's bake sale. She'd tried whipping up another batch of them, but she could feel her stomach aching halfway through the recipe. She finished the batch and then made a batch of chocolate with chocolate frosting. Those she couldn't stand to be in the room with after pulling them from the oven.

Then there was the time she went racing for the bathroom when her aunt brought her favorite red velvet cake, the one Judy couldn't stop eating when she was pregnant with Kirsten.

In the second trimester, Judy started taking Kirsten for ice cream every day after school because she kept craving lemon sherbet. Her daughter thought her mom had gone mad. Judy couldn't disagree. Baby Kirsten had made Mommy put away about a hundred gallons of rocky road during those nine months.

The addition of fresh fruits into her diet was doctor's orders. The family didn't mind; Russel was all too happy to be introduced to fresh pineapple; and Kirsten decided that raspberry was much cooler than grape. But what they didn't know is that Judy was hording the strawberries for herself. Russel caught on and bought chocolate-covered strawberries, but Judy couldn't eat them. Not that Russel hadn't gotten what he was after anyway.

Judy was relegated to sparkling apple cider over New Year's Eve. She was a bit grumpy it, until she took a sip after kissing Russel. Two minutes later, she was drinking the whole bottle down, straight from the source, like a wino.

* * *

A/N: I think it's kind of obvious that I wrote Rosa's and Margo's vignettes first. I love how Judy's came together, and I _adore_ what became of Abigail's.


	3. 3A: The Introduction, or The Miracle

The Overture: Track 3A  
by Creedog VanDrey

Category: _Glee_  
Genre: Family  
Rating: T  
Language: English  
Summary: It wasn't real until she wrote the name on the birth certificate.

A/N: I'm really wondering if I should have just done this one vignette at a time. Or one character at a time. Regardless, I think it's more challenging this way. It forces me to examine the characters that I haven't yet.

* * *

Track 3, Side A: The Introduction  
or "The Miracle"

Margo circled a date on the calendar, three weeks before her due date, and wrote in "6:22 PM" and didn't tell her husband or mother what it meant.

When the time rolled around, Peter found his wife sitting on the couch with their birth bag in her nearly non-existent lap.

"Is it time?" Peter remarked, wondering if he should become harried.

"Take me to the hospital; it'll be time by the time we get there."

Peter didn't question his wife; he just drove. It took about half an hour of sitting in the waiting room before Margo declared she was ready.

The entire procedure took a little under five hours. The doctors were very careful since she was a premie, but after a few days in the hospital, both ladies went home with no complications.

Margo wanted something American, so they settled on "Brittany." Gusta was not happy, especially since her son-in-law had Americanized his last name from Van Piers to Pierce, in her mind all but erasing their Dutch heritage. Her middle name was "Susan," after the girl's godmother. It fit rather nicely on the birth certificate.

: : :

Rosalina went into labor at 3:13 AM early one Monday morning. Her due date had been the previous day, and all their family and friends were excited about the arrival of the baby boy to be named Carlos. Getting to sleep that night with their baby still in womb was hard, but they finally managed, only for Rosalina to wake up her husband, complaining that she was dying.

It turned out to be contractions, and she was rushed to the hospital.

After thirty-eight excruciating hours of labor, Rosalina was ready to give up. Then the doctor declared her fully dilated. Three minutes and nine seconds later, the baby _girl_ was out. Everyone, including Dr. Perez, was flabbergasted. The baby had preserved her modesty throughout the gestation, and they all had just assumed it was a boy. It took nine swats to the behind before she would cry.

So, instead of Carlos, they named her Santana. It was not a common name, but it fit. With her two middle names—Maria Catalina—and her full Spanish surname—Lopez de Rivera—her name didn't quite fit on the birth certificate.

: : :

Shelby noticed Hiram and Leroy pulling away near the end of her third trimester. She knew why. She would be giving them their daughter soon, and they all knew that Shelby never seeing the child was for the best. Shelby had agreed initially. She loved the sweet gay men, but she had been glad not to be expecting to care for a messy, smelly mini-human. But that was before nearly a year of crazy hormone fluctuations and trips to the baby store. She knew she didn't want to keep the little spawn, but it would be nice to look at it, maybe hold it for a little bit, perhaps hand it over to the new fathers, making their day.

But she knew she wouldn't be doing that. So, she started making plans for what she'd do in New York. She was going to be a star on Broadway. And one day, she'd run into two gay men and their gorgeous (of _course_ she would be gorgeous) daughter, and they'd say, _that's your mommy_, and she'd get to hug the little girl, and…

No, that wasn't right. Shelby _didn't_ want this kid. She wanted stardom.

Her water broke in the middle of that very thought.

One glimpse of the baby was all she got. She never spoke to Hiram or Leroy again. She never even learned the child's name. She never even saw the birth certificate and wondered if her name was even on it. She just got a plane ticket in the mail, Cincinnati to JFK, one way.

When the plane took off, she was crying, but by the time it landed, she was smiling, ready to face the Big Apple.

: : :

Carole went into labor in a movie theater while watching Walt Disney's _The Adventures of Huck Finn_. She would tell people it happened while she was reading the book.

It was a hard birth. The baby was large: just over nine pounds and twenty-one inches. Luckily Carole carried a lot of weight in her thighs and had not gone the silly no-pain medication route that was gaining popularity.

"Finn Christopher Hudson" fit perfectly on the birth certificate. Carole wrote it herself; Christopher was stuck in Iraq and didn't make it back until a week after the birth. He made up for lost time, though, holding little Finn the entire time he was home. But he left again. The war was long over, but one additional voluntary tour of duty during Iraqi reconstruction would earn him enough money to start his first son's college account.

Instead of Christopher arriving just in time for Finn's first birthday party, two soldiers in dress uniform arrived with a folded flag. It was an abandoned improvised landmine in the middle of the road and Christopher had been hit in the wrong spot by a piece of shrapnel the size of a soda bottle cap. Carole cried and Finn cried, too.

: : :

Judy suffered Braxton Hicks contractions half a dozen times before the real thing. Each time, she had just gotten into bed, _just_ gotten comfortable, _just_ put on her sleep mask, and turned off the light.

After that one time in the thirty-ninth week the contractions didn't go away, Judy calmly announced that it was time. Russel complained about just getting off to sleep. They were seconds away from a fight when Russel put his hands on his wife's face and told her, "Sweetie, we're not having a fight; we're having a baby." From then on, Judy had a smile.

Until the labor. Little Girl Fabray took exactly as long, to the minute, to come out that her big sister had: nineteen hours and eleven minutes.

"She looks like Kirsten," Judy remarked.

"She looks like you, Sweetheart," Russel decided.

Judy wanted to name her Celeste. Russel loved the name, and asked that they use her middle name to honor his Great-Uncle Quinn. In a moment of spontaneous inspiration, Judy switched the names around on the birth certificate. Russel was at first confused. Quinn was a boy's name. Judy thought it had an old-timey unisex charm to it. Russel said the name a few times to himself as he held his newborn daughter in his arms.

"It's not an option," he remarked. Judy began to tear up, ready to claim it was the hormones. But then Russel smiled, "It's the _only _option. God gave us a little angel. And He named her Quinn. I don't have a say in this."

Kirsten was ecstatic to have a new sister, and was immediately envious of her name, asking if they could switch.

: : :

Gabe wasn't present for the birth of his son. He hadn't _planned _not to be. True, he hadn't attended any of the check-ups, but had given an affirming nod to all the sonogram pictures his wife had shown him, taking pride that his swimmers created a little boy. When his son was born, he had expected to be at the hospital, in the waiting room, though, and not at his favorite bar.

It wasn't his fault, he figured. Babies arrived in the middle of the night. Everyone knew that. He was all set to take his lady to the hospital, psyching himself up every night to "Eye of the Tiger." But Abigail had gone into labor at nine o'clock in the morning, when he was at work and difficult to reach, and delivering at half past five, in the middle of happy hour.

His sister-in-law finally reached him at his favorite dive, and to his credit, he rushed straight there on his motorcycle. He was angry at himself, sure; he hadn't wanted to be half-drunk the first time he'd met his son. Though, unsurprisingly, Abigail found a lot of anger to dish out at him.

He calmly waited out his wife's tantrum, asking when she ran out of breath. "The little bastard have a name, yet?"

"Noah," she replied.

"I like it," he said, walking over to the bassinet. He was disappointed that his first thoughts weren't about how he was a father, but how the baby looked kind of a like a plucked chicken with a funny ridge across the top of his head. "I bet he's going to be like his old dad."

"I hope not," Abigail whispered under her breath.

: : :

They named the baby William. It had been decided in advance. Hazel and Jack spent months throwing out names, filling out memo pads with suggestions. Jack tended toward monosyllabic names. Real men have names that you can say in one breath, he reasoned: Frank, Pete, Rick, Dan, Jack. Hazel tended towards more creative names, like Chancy and Walker, which were more like last names, but she was drawn to them.

William was a bizarre compromise. It was a traditional name. It pleased both their palettes. As Hazel held her newborn son in her arms, she knew she'd made the right choice. When Jack walked into the hospital room, he smiled. "Life is perfect," he told his wife.

"He's perfect," Hazel replied.

* * *

A/N: You know, I can't find it in myself to portray Russel Fabray in a bad light. I like to give hints into his nature, but I can't help remember that in the episode where he appeared, before Quinn's secret came out, he _adored_ his wife and daughters. So sue me, but I'm going to show him as nothing less than an old-fashioned and loving husband and father.


	4. 4A: The Prelude, or Beautiful Baby

The Overture: Track 4A  
by Creedog VanDrey

Category: _Glee_  
Genre: Family  
Rating: T  
Language: English  
Summary: Every baby is different. Every baby has a personality.

A/N: This series is kind of dragging on for me, so I found new inspiration by mixing it up the pairings. I hope no one's expecting this to move along quickly, because this is really my go-to piece whenever I don't have inspiration for my other stories. It's formatted. It's low-pressure. It's character study. It's a sandbox.

* * *

Track 4, Side A: The Prelude  
or "Beautiful Baby"

Little Rachel never knew what silence sounded like. Her daddies played music constantly, only turning it off when Rachel dozed off to lullabies.

Hiram had gotten a job at a trophy shop to supplement their income, and came home with a trophy every month declaring that his baby girl had won some singing competition or dance recital. His excuse was that one day her walls would be lined with them, so he wanted to make sure they weren't bare when she started out. Self-esteem was important.

Rachel never knew what loneliness was, either. Her fathers kept Rachel's crib in their room until she moved to a bed. Until she was two, she was never outside the presence of one of them; they staggered their work shifts to make sure that happened. She smiled because it made her fathers smile. She babbled because it made her fathers babble. She danced because it made her fathers dance.

: : :

Little William, if he knew any better, would have thought he was a show piece. For the first six months of his life, his parents dressed him up in cute little outfits for all their family and friends to see.

Jack and Hazel's parents came to see their grandson, of course. But when most of William's aunts and uncles told the couple they couldn't come out to see William until the family reunion at Christmas, Jack and Hazel packed up their bags and made a dozen car trips to various parts of the Midwest to show off their newborn son. For them, the stress of toting around an infant was worth the gleam in their family's eyes.

: : :

Finn was an easy baby. He never cried unless he was hungry or had a dirty diaper. He always finished his food and slept in longer stints than other babies his age. Carole could even take him out to restaurants with minimal trouble. She thanked her lucky stars that she had the kind of baby that made being a single mother easier. He got along great with other babies, even babies like Noah.

Finn loved TV. Carole spent most evenings seated on the couch, with Finn at her feet in his cruiser, both of their eyes glued to whatever was on: cartoons, the news, horror flicks. Finn never really seemed to care what was happening on screen, but he was staring intently, nibbling on Cheerios.

: : :

Noah was not an easy baby. He sometimes cried just to hear the sound of his own voice or because he wanted attention. And once he got the attention he sought, he quickly moved on to other distractions. He got really cranky when it was his nap time and never slept long enough. Gabe and Abigail felt like comrades-in-arms; they grew closer emotionally as they grew apart physically.

Noah didn't care for blocks, unless he got to throw them. He liked noisy toys, pots and pans, bells, whistles, a cowbell that Gabe immediately regretted giving him, especially when Noah screeched until he got it back after his father had hidden it. To him, nothing in the house _wasn't_ a toy. The baby-proofing implements in his way were minor obstacles, challenges to his tiny manhood to overcome.

: : :

Santana did _not_ like to be swaddled. She enjoyed wriggling around with purpose. She enjoyed, and practically demanded, to be bounced. By eight months, she was hell-bent on learning to walk, months before any of her daycare mates, on little legs barely strong enough to support her. Before her first birthday, she was toddling around her small house. Dr. Perez noted that Santana's development was in the ninety-ninth percentile, which Santana seemed to take more pride in than even her parents.

Santana was a clingy baby, though. She was distrustful of solitude, so she demanded that someone always be in the same room with her, though she rarely acknowledged their existence. She didn't interact much with playmates, but got cranky when they left. It took a lot of coaxing to make her smile. The world was there for _her_ amusement, not the other way around.

: : :

Quinn did _not_ like to be swaddled, but her stubbornness was no match for the combined stubbornness of her parents. Judy dressed Quinn up in white and pink frilly dresses, and taped bows on her bald head (which Quinn liked to suck on). Most of the time, Quinn was no more well-behaved than other babies, but she showed rare calmness in church. She could sleep through the longest of services. She stayed awake but didn't make a peep when she played Baby Jesus in the children's Nativity Play. She smiled at the reverend at her christening.

Quinn didn't mind being left alone. When Judy tried giving Quinn her own room, the baby girl seemed to sleep better while her mother slept worse. But when company was over, Quinn wanted to be in the middle of everything. If someone wasn't _looking_ at her, she wasn't happy. When she went to day care, she spent all her time crawling into the middle of groups, plopping herself down on top whatever toy had gained the interest of her playmates and sitting there quietly until the other babies caused a ruckus about the lack of access to their favorite toys.

: : :

Margo connected with several other parents of infants in her community for a home play date rotation. Brittany was the first in the group to smile, which made the Fabrays very jealous. But she was last in everything else. She was the last to take her first steps, though she'd been shaking at the sound of music, any music, from two weeks old. She was the last to recognize her own name. She was the last to say her first word, which was neither "Mama" nor "Dada" but "zon," a word her grandmother had taught her after the little girl delighted in the sun shining through the window every morning.

Margo was very idealistic. She thought she could get Brittany onto a schedule and everything would be grand. The other mothers laughed at her. Margo had the last laugh. Brittany rarely cried because her mother would set timers to feed, change, and bathe her at the same times every day. When it was her nap time, she'd clutch whatever stuffed animal was laid in her hands and doze off moments later. She didn't worry about life.

* * *

A/N: You know, all the previews of "The Substitute" are on, and I keep seeing the Mini-Gleeks and I really hope that they don't in some way influence future chapters. But it's nice to have a visual.


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